The present invention relates to fantasy sports games. In particular, the present invention relates to fantasy games based on seed-based tournaments which involve selecting winners for each round of the tournament.
Gaming and wagering on ongoing tournaments by tournament fans generally falls within three distinct categories. First, fans often pick which tournament participant or team will win the overall championship. Second, fans often pick the winner or winners of the individual rounds, choosing either set of individual teams or a series of teams linked in what is commonly referred to as a parlay. If each team wins, the fan wins. Third, fans will choose winners for each game in the entire tournament, often filling in a chart which outlines the tournament course. Finally, in states with legalized gambling, fans often place wagers according to the above categories. In other states, xe2x80x9coffice poolsxe2x80x9d also exist, where individuals compete by filling out a tournament chart as above, and xe2x80x9cpoolxe2x80x9d participation fees as a reward for the best guesses. The winner of the pool is usually the individual with the most wins.
At present, one of the most popular tournaments for this type of gaming is the NCAA(trademark) division I basketball tournament, which includes 64 college basketball teams selected from the top teams in the United States. The teams are divided into four divisions of 16 teams, and each team is given a rank or a xe2x80x9cseedxe2x80x9d based on their win loss record, the difficulty of their season, and their perceived chance of winning the tournament. The tournament is a knockout or single elimination tournament, and after the first round, 32 teams are eliminated and 32 teams remain. After the second round, 16 teams are eliminated and 16 remain. This continues until one team remains as the NCAA(trademark) division I champion.
Current fantasy games based upon tournaments like the NCAA(trademark) tournaments have one common failing. If a fan chooses poorly in the initial rounds of the tournament, enough of the teams they have chosen are eliminated, and they may be statistically barred from winning the game. Such fans typically lose interest after the first or second round. Variants of this situation occur when fans lose all of their teams in a particular division, lose all of the teams that they have chosen for the finals, semi-finals or championship rounds, or simply lose the team with which they most strongly identify, through a shared location, history or background with the team.
For these and other reasons, fans can often lose interest in the ongoing tournament, and also lose interest in the ongoing fantasy game based on the tournament. Where the game is played via an on-line service or content provider, i.e., a gaming site, such a provider often earns revenues from advertising and xe2x80x9chitsxe2x80x9d upon the game site as fans check the progress of their selection. Such sites often have related content, such as different competitive games, or gambling where legal, and fans who more frequently check the status of their fantasy game are thus more likely to utilize the other content provided by the site.
Thus there is a problem for retaining fan interest in the later rounds of ongoing fantasy sports games based on ongoing tournaments, such that fans who lose their chosen teams, commonly referred to as xe2x80x9cpicks,xe2x80x9d in early rounds of the ongoing tournament also lose interest in the ongoing fantasy game. In the Internet gaming scenario, this loss of fan interest also represents a loss of advertising and participation fee revenues.
Thus, the present invention relates to a method for conducting a seed-based fantasy sports game which increases game participant""s interest in the later rounds of the game and tournament by allowing game participants to trade their teams, and by increasing the points available in later rounds. The method includes the steps of: selecting a plurality of teams from the field of an ongoing sports tournament; determining a result of the ongoing tournament; calculating a point total for the fantasy game participant based on the results of the round of competition; allowing a number of trades of the eliminated competitors for remaining competitors; and eventually determining the winner of the fantasy sports game after completion of the ongoing tournament.
In one embodiment of the invention, the method includes awarding bonus points to player(s) who complete the game without trading any of their teams receive bonus points, or to the player(s) who complete the game trading the fewest teams. This step provides an incentive and reward for players who make their best picks early in the tournament.
In one embodiment of the invention, the method includes reducing the number of trades allowed following each round of the tournament. Trading may also be reduced by allowing trading only during a limited number of rounds in the tournament, i.e., fewer rounds than the total number of rounds in the tournament.
In one embodiment of the invention, the fantasy game uses a series of graphical interfaces provided on an Internet web page.